The aim of these encounters, organised by the Mind and Life Institute, is to further the already productive dialogue between Buddhist and scientific studies of the mind. Past conferences have spurred the development of research programmes that examine the effects of Buddhist contemplative techniques and how they might be applied more widely to benefit humanity. They have, for example, been instrumental in the work of Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin, whose brain imaging studies found that experienced meditators show increased activity in the left prefrontal cortex of the brain, an area associated with emotional well-being, as well as having stronger immune systems.

For a man brought up to believe the world was flat, the Dalai Lama's embrace of science is remarkable, although he was already demonstrating his fervent curiosity for the mechanics of the world when teaching himself to fix clocks and film projectors as a boy in Lhasa. During exile he has increasingly sought out the company of scientists, including Sir Karl Popper, David Bohm and Francisco Varela, and more recently has been raising funds to ensure Tibetan monks under his tutelage receive a scientific as well as Buddhist education. Most famously, he has repeatedly insisted that if science proves any of the doctrines of Buddhism to be false, then those doctrines will have to change.

The Buddhism-science interface is less incongruous when viewed from a perspective shorn of western cultural assumptions about what makes a religion - as B Alan Wallace has argued, Buddhism contains elements which correspond closely to western notions of philosophy, psychology, and science. Of course, it does also feature religious aspects – it has plenty to say about what may happen during and after death, makes suggestions about how to live an ethical life, and lays importance on shared rituals and practice among a community of members. However, at its core is not worship of an external creator or the rigid promulgation of codes of behaviour, but a path of practice designed to test its ideas, a path in which asking questions is more important than having the answers and openness to the evidence is more valuable than being right.

Perhaps because of this emphasis on fearless inquiry and empirical observation, and perhaps because it developed in societies unburdened by several centuries of schism between science and church, Buddhism's modern encounter with the former – epitomised by the Dalai Lama – has been characterised mostly by enthusiasm rather than defensiveness. That enthusiasm has then been fuelled further by the discovery that, at their best, both Buddhism and science share methodological similarities, including a commitment to testing hypotheses about the nature of reality by repeated experiment.

Of course, that is not to say that Buddhism is science (or vice-versa). While scientific endeavour is based on observation of material phenomena in the external world, Buddhism – with its practices of meditation, contemplation and visualisation – actively enlists the subjective mind in an investigation of itself, in the belief that over time, such an inquiry can help it first see and then become free of the biases and projections that perpetuate false views and are the root cause of suffering.

With increasing awareness about how such biases of the observing mind affect the collection of data, as well as the realisation – in fields such as quantum physics and consciousness studies – that the subjective stance of the experimenter cannot and perhaps should not be isolated from their experiments, the contemplative approach comes to seem ever more a useful complement to scientific method. As the Dalai Lama himself has joked, while the western world was busy exploring outer space, Tibetan Buddhists had already long been charting inner space.

Organised Buddhism in the west remains tiny compared to more established religions, and its transplantation outside of an Asian context carries many challenges. But after just 40 or so years, its influence - through the gradual permeation of its practices and philosophy into areas such as healthcare provision – is already considerable. This is in large part because of its willingness to dialogue with, learn from and contribute to western modes of knowing with which it has a natural affinity.

Only by engaging with the powerful forms and methods of inquiry developed by science can religion make a credible (and necessary) case for its continued relevance to modern society. The Dalai Lama, through his ongoing commitment to ventures such as the Mind and Life conferences, has shown his willingness to make such an engagement. If other religious traditions are to avoid being increasingly sidelined and ridiculed, they will need leaders of comparable stature – meaning those at the very highest level - to make a similar stand for the rigorous pursuit of truth, using scientific as well as spiritual method.